reading in the past
by Music lover 551792
Summary: the TLH Trio annabeth, thalia, and nico go to the past to read about percy's adventures with the gods. the trio and the gods will learn about the hero named percy jackson and annabeth, thalia, and nico will get to remember their brother and boyfriend. i know this has been done a ton of times but i just love these and i love percy jackson. rated because of minor cussing.
1. Chapter 1

_hi guys! i'm new at this and haven't really written any stories, but i really hope you guys like it and i might not update all the time because i have a lot going on at school and stuff. I'm also really sorry for any grammar mistakes._

**We're in 2001?**

third person

It was a normal day at camp half-blood or as normal as it gets there anyway. Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Leo and Thalia, who came to help, were working on Argo II, and Nico was lurking around in the shadows. it's been 6 months since Percy disappeared and Jason showed up. Hera had switched them so that the Roman and Greek camps could work together, but everyone one was missing Percy.

How could they not he was their friend, brother, hero and for one lucky daughter of Athena her boyfriend. He means a lot to the people of this camp and he had been gone for half the year already, and it's all that Hera. She is just using both Percy and Jason no matter who gets hurt. But soon the Argo II will be finished and everyone would get their Percy back.

Annabeth:

Leo, Piper, Jason, Thalia and i were working on the Argo II when suddenly there was this bright light that engulfed us, and the next thing i knew we were falling into a black pit while screaming. "GUYS STOP SCREAMING!" I yelled over everyone else.

"Annabeth? Is that you? What the hell is going on?" i heard Nico yell. i didn't even know he was here.

" Nico? I have no idea. there was a bright light and now we're falling… WAIT! I see a light!" i explain. Then as we fall into the light, i hear voices and hope that nothing terrible happens.

Zeus:

It was a normal winter solstice this year when suddenly we hear screams and 6 kids fall out of the ceiling. i snap my fingers and make two couches for them to land on. When they land and stand up, they start yelling.

" WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?" The boy with pale skin, dark eyes, and dark hair yelled/ asked.

" HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW DEATH BREATH?" Replied the girl with black hair and electric blue eyes yelled back.

" GUYS SHUT UP AND LOOK AROUND YOU." The girl with blond hair yelled and as she finished, she and the others looked at us. " ummmm why did you guys sumon us?" she asked us this time.

" we didn't sumon you. We don't even know who you are." stated my daughter Athena.

" okay…" she paused as she looked around," umm, what year is it?" she asked at last, but i don't know why she would ask that. so i replied," it is 2001. why and WHO ARE YOU?" i yellled the last part. Then all of a sudden they all said…

"CARP!"


	2. Chapter 2

chapter 2: Vaporizing Per-Algebra Teachers

hi guys sorry i haven't updated in a while, but i had a lot going on at school. Seriously teachers give WAY to much homework! Anyway here's the next chapter and remember i'm new at this. oh and i totally forgot to say this last time but i don't own anything except the plot and everything that isn't that is bold is from the book. ENJOY!

Poseidon:

"CRAP!"

"What is going on here? Who are you? Shouldn't you know what year it is? More importantly, what are you doing here?" Athena asked as the demigods rambled on and on about who knows what.

"BE QUIET!" yelled a blond girl," And to answer your questions mom, we don't know what's going on, we're your kids, no we wouldn't know what year it is because we are from the future and last but the most important we don't know what's going on." as soon as the girl finished another flash appeared but this time with a note. It landed at the dark haired girl's feet so she picked it up and started reading:

_Dear future demigods and past gods,_

_We have sent these demigods to the past to read about the future and someone who is very dear to most of them and who has saved the world many times. This is an opportunity for the gods to learn about the future and for the three new demigods to learn about the lost hero. We hope you all learn something from these books._

_From the Fates_

_P.S The demigods will introduce themselves and their parentage._

_P.P.S DO NOT KILL THESE DEMIGODS THEY ARE VERY IMPORTANT!1_

_P.P.P.S Some more demigods will join you soon._

"Okay. NOW INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!" thundered Zeus. (i know I know cheesy, but i've ALWAYS wanted to do that)

"I am Annabeth Chase daughter of Athena." the blond girl from before said as Athena smiled at her daughter.

"I'm Leo Valdez son of the awesome Hephaestus, and fire user." said the boy with dark curly hair and dark eyes said. Hephaestus sent a proud smile leo's way.

" i'm Piper McLean daughter of Aphrodite and charm speaker." Piper was a beautiful girl which made Aphrodite very proud

The next boy came up. He had blond hair and electric blue eyes. "I'm Jason Grace son of Zeus." Before all Hades could break out the last up. He had dark hair and eyes which looked much older than him. "I'm Nico Di Angelo the son of Hades." Nico said quickly and ran behind the only girl who hadn't introduced herself yet.

Again before anyone could say anything else the girl with dark hair and, like the boy jason, had electric blue eyes. "I'm Thalia Grace and daughter of Zeus and before you start, yes i was a tree but i'm not anymore. It will be in the book if they are what i think they are, and don't start dad uncle Hades didn't break the oath, Nico was born before it." she finished and everyone was so stunned they couldn't say a word.

"Anyway where are these books we're supposed to read? I want to finish this so i can go back to my baby." Right after Leo said that a REALLY HARD looking package fell on his head and he cried," owww!" while holding his head.

Then Annabeth picked up the package and opened it. From what I could see there were 10 books, but as soon as she saw them her hands started to tremble and her eyes became watery, and then she did something i would never expect a child of Athena to do. She dropped all of the books to the floor. The other girl went up to pick up the books but her voice trembled as she read the title, " Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief." when she finished all of the Demigods eyes and mine widened. That can't be my son he's only 4. There are a lot of Percy Jacksons. Yeah. it's not him. i told myself.

Zeus' voice broke my thoughts. He had brought 2 couches for the demigods to sit on. Now the demigods didn't look surprised or sad, they seemed happy which of course is a good thing." Okay, who wants to read first?" I asked.

"I will." replied owl head (I think you know who that is)

"Of course YOU would." I said emphasizing the 'you', but just as she was about to start there was another blinding light and some more confused faces were seen.

**Athena:**

"Where the heck are we? A girl around the same age as the others asked.

"First introduce yourselves." Commanded Zeus.

"O...kay, I am katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter." the girl introduced herself.

"I'm Travis..,started one of the boys,but never finished because the other did.

" and i'm Conner stoll," then they said together," proud sons of Hermes." Naturally Hermes smiled at them and they smiled back.

"I'm Grover Underwood, lord of the wind. Now, if we may, can you tell us what's going on." the saytar said, and also naturally my daughter explained what was going on and father had a another couch appear for the new demigods.

When everyone had settled down I finally asked," Can I read now?"

"Yes daughter, please start." replied my father, so i did.

**Third person:**

**I Accidentally vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**

"Are all the chapters gonna be titled like that?" Jason asked.

"Knowing Percy,Yes." Thalia answer.

**Look I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No one does" All the demigods stated at once.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe what-ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

** Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Sad but true." Nico said sadly.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

** But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a mat-ter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

** Don't say I didn't warn you.**

Annabeth glared at everybody, so they wouldn't say anything. Then continued reading.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

** I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

** Am I a troubled kid?**

" HELL YEAH!" Shouted the stolls, Nico and Thalia.

**Yeah. You could say that**.

" See he even agrees." the people from before stated.

** I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

** Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"He sleeps in class?" A horrified Athena examined. The only reply she got was," ADHD." After that she thought the best thing to do was just read the book.

** I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

" Ya like that's gonna happen." snorted Thalia.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

** See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind- the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

" Man this kid is amazing! He has got to be your's Hermes." Apollo said while laughing on the ground like most others.

" i wish man." replied Hermes

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

** All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

** Grover was an easy target.**

"Gee Thanks Perce." Grover said sarcastically as everyone laughed.

**He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Really Grover, Really?" everyone asked.

" They were good!" he replied trying to defend himself.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"That sucks!" Apollo, Hermes, and the stolls examined and as a result got smacked over the head by Katie and Artemis.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it" Ares said excitedly.

** Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter. "**

"So do i but not in my hair." Piper said.

** He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

** "That's it. " I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

** "You're already on probation, " he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens. "**

"Always the one to get blamed." sighed Annabeth. She really missed her seaweed brain.

** Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into**.

"oh no," Poseidon exclaimed worriedly.

" Why do you care Poseidon?" Athena asked curiously.

"The kid's grown on me and I don't want him to die." Poseidon replied coolly. Athena wasn't going to believe that so easily, but for now so let it go and continued to read.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**it blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer, much longer." Athena interrupted herself before continuing.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

" Ha. I bet it was mostly Percy's fault." Laughed Nico. Everyone who knew Percy nodded even Annabeth.

" Is he really that bad?" asked Piper.

"Yes, yes he is." Came from all the demigods except the trio.( A/N The trio are Jason, Piper and Leo.)

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

" No that's Nico." Thalia said.

"Ya….. Wait….. Hey!" Nico replied(sorta) while everyone else laughed.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right.**"

"Grover!" Everyone shouted.

" Sorrrrrryyyy. It was supposed to be a joke." was his reply.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

"YAY PERCE!" the stolls yelled.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did." sighed Annabeth.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

" It's always that one." whined the elder gods.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and - "**

" GOD!" all the gods shouted enraged.

" I bet Chiron will correct him." Annabeth defended her boyfriend.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"See"

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters - "**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Ewww is right." Demeter said.

**" - and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

" I can't believe he summed up thousands of years of fighting into a few sentences. How do you even do that?" Jason asked.

"That's Percy for you." Katie replied.

**Some snickers from the group.**

" Why?" Leo asked but his only reply were shrugs from everyone.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

" Busted!" yelled the stolls.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Oh no we think like a goat!" they yelled again pretending to cry.

" Hey!" Grover explained.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"When aren't they." Artemis said.

"Hey!" all the boys in the room exclaimed.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go - intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**" Typical Percy reply." Thalia said smirking. 'He didn't change much from all the way back then.' Thaila thought.**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C - in my life. No - he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires fromlightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"What are you two fighting about now." Athena asked looking at Poseidon and Zeus.

" How should we know owl head? This happens in the future. Use your brain a little goddess of wisdom." replied Poseidon in a matter-of-factory tone while everyone else tried to contain their laughs but failed because of Athena's bright red face. Not wanting to be humiliated any longer, she continued to read.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Of course" came from an amused Nico.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school - the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean - I'm not a genius."**

"Understatement," Thalia said in a sing-a-song voice.

" Why are so mean to him. I thought you were friends?" Piper asked confused.

"We're not friends." stated Thalia and as soon as she did Zeus and Jason smirked.

"She means we're a lot more than friends. We're siblings. Me, Thalia and Percy," explained Nico. This time Zeus and Jason frowned.

"That's sweet." Piper smiled.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

" Wow Grover, Wow" Travis laughed and Grover was bright red.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me**.

" Mama's boy." muttered Ares.

" So? I'm a mommy's girl." Thalia sounding a bit angry.

" Yay and I'm a mama's boy too." Nico said in the same tone Thalia had.

" WHAT?!" Jason and Hades shouted.

"I thought you said mom died?" asked a confused Jason.

" And Maria is dead too." Hades stated also confused.

" They are." Thalia and Nico simply replied.

"Huh?" They asked even more confused.

" Okay Sally, Percy's mom, is like mine and Nico's mom. She doesn't treat us any different than she treats Percy and she wants us to call her mom because she says she thinks of us as her other kids. We love Sally like she's our mom and she loves us like we're her kids." Thalia explained.

" Oh," was Jason's reply though he was jealous.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Cool!" Leo exclaimed.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends - I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists - and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

" Hate her," Thalia and Annabeth said through gritted teeth.

** tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see - "**

**" - the water - "**

**" - like it grabbed her - "**

" YOU BROKE THE OATH!" Zeus shouted pointing at Poseidon. Hades was also mad but didn't because his son was sitting in the room.

" Please, your one to talk. You have TWO kids right now in front of all of us." that shut Zeus up.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey - "**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks.**

" No! You never guess your punishment." the stolls and Hermes yelled in unison.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

" Well duh!" conner said.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped.**

**"It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But - "**

**"You - will - stay - here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"You do not want to be on the other end of that." Nico shuddered.

"Ya that isn't even his scariest and it scared me!" Thalia added.

"He gave it to us for trying to pull a prank on him and he gave us the I-can't -believe-you-messed-with-me stare and I almost pied my pants." Tavis said and then shivered at the memory.

"Are you kidding me I did pie my pants!" when Conner shouted that everyone burst out laughing.

"It can't be that scary." Jason said.

" Oh yes it can," the four who had received the glares said seriously in unison.

"ooooooooookay. Lets keep reading." Zeus said.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

" She's a monster Kelp Head duh" Thalia said turning around as if expecting him to be there, but he wasn't which made her frown.

" It's okay. Just keep reading." Nico said comforting Thalia.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am.**"

" Hit the deck! The world's ending!" Thalia yelled now recovered from the sadness that had taken over.

" What 's wrong." the gods and the trio asked.

" Percy is never polite to anyone not even the gods." Nico explained and with that they thought the only wise thing to do was read.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll - I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

" AHAHAHAHAHA! This kid is the best." Hermes said while rolling on the flour with Apollo, the stolls. Nico and leo. After everyone had calmed down they started to read again.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

**"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON!**" Yelled Poseidon.

**"It happened in the future brother," Hades replied calmly but was terrified inside. Poseidon can be really scary.**

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword - Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

" How does that come naturally?" Jason asked.

" For the best swordsman in 300 hundred years, pretty easily," Annabeth replied.

"Wow," gasped Leo.

** The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"He defeated a fury when he was 12, without training and without knowing who the heck he was?" Leo asked amazed.

"Yep. That's my big bro for you!" Nico exclaimed proudly.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**"Who?" Poseidon asked.**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Dude you need to learn how to lie," Conner told Grover who just nodded.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**he other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at YancyAcademy. Are you feeling all right?**"

" Now Chiron can lie." stated Travis.

"okay, so who wants to read next?" Athena asked.

" I do," Thalia said raising her hand. Athena handed her the book and just as she was about to start there was another bright flash of light.


	3. Chapter 3

**Three old ladies knit the socks of death**

_hey guys im so sorry i haven't updated, and in the last chapter percy is 8 not 4. I accidently did that sorry. oh and you'll understand why i just pointed in about 5 seconds. ENJOY!_

_Just as thaila was about to start reading there was another bright light in the throne room._

As the light died down there stood 3 teenagers and 4 kids who looked about 8 years old. The blond haired girl who looked a lot like Annabeth but was about 8 ran up to Thalia and hugged her while crying," But I thought you were a tree!"

"Ya Annabeth I was, but a really important friend brought me back. Now can you please get off me?" Thalia responded.

"okay now that that's over. Can the newcomers introduce themselves." Athena said to the demigods.

"I'm Clarisse La Rue daughter of Ares." one of the young demigods said.

"Ummm, same here but older" said the older version of Clarisse.

"I'm Annabeth chase, daughter of Athena," the younger Annabeth said.

"I'm Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes." said the boy holding the older Clarisse's hand.

"I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Oracle and ya I'm mortal whatever." the redhead said. She was one of the teenagers."

"YES! MY ORACLE SWITCHES BODIES!" Apollo yelled at the top of his lungs.

"O…..kay. Anyway I'm Luke Castellan, son of Hermes. Oh and Thalia it's really good to know you're alive again in the future." Luke smiled at Thalia who was just looking anywhere but him.

Past Annabeth's POV:

Thalia was acting really weird because she wasn't looking at me or Luke. As she looked around she looked at the kid with dark hair and really pretty sea green eyes. When she saw him her eyes widened and she did something I thought she would never do. She screamed," Percy!" and ran to the boy and hugged him so tight I don't think he could breathe. Then all the older kids ran to him and started hugging him.

"Woah! Who are you people and why are you hugging me!" Yelled the boy whose name is Percy I think.

" Oh right you're 8 not 16. You don't know us yet." Thalia said really sadly. But I don't know why.

"Okay. I think the older demigods should introduce themselves as well because the younger ones don't know some of you." Lord Zeus said. After everyone introduced themselves we were all really surprised.{ A/N I really didn't feel like doing the introductions again}

"Okay so we're reading books about Percy Jackson, and he's our future friend." Thalia explained.

"There's a book about me?" asked the Percy kid.

"Ya there is bro!" Nico said. Then he explained the first chapter to us so that we would understand what was going on. Then lord Zeus flashed 2 couches for us to sit on, but just as we were about to sit down Thalia asked," Hey Percy do you want to sit next to me?"

"Ummm sure it's not like I know anyone else." Percy replied and went to sit next to Thalia. I was kind of hurt.' Why didn't she ask me to sit next to her' I thought but pushed the thought away as Thalia started reading.

**Third Person:**

**Chapter 2 THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me**

"Omg we should totally do that when Percy comes back to camp." said a really excited Conner.

"I wouldn't you know what Percy did to us the last time we tried to prank him," Travis shuddered at the memory.

"What do you mean when I come back to the camp? Where am I?" Percy questioned.

"Umm you're with your mom. You went home for a while." lied Annabeth while glaring at Conner.

"Okay." A convinced Percy replied.

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr - a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip - had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"You are psycho." all the older demigods said in union.

"Hey!" Yelled percy while everyone else laughed.

**It got so I almost believed them - Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"Grover!" Nico yelled.

"How would you know it was me?" Grover tried to defend himself.

"Because Grover, you're a really bad liar." explained Nico and then motioned for Thalia to read.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"No shit kelp head." said Thalia before continuing.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the HudsonValley touched down only fifty miles from YancyAcademy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

" Guess I don't get much better in the future." Percy sighed.

" It's okay Percy. you're not alone," Travis assured him.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

At that everyone started laughing except the younger demigods and the stolls. When Annabeth noticed she said," It means old drunk." After she said that everyone was laughing. Once everyone calmed down Thalia started to read again.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Wimp" I think you know who said that.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

At that Percy shivered and since Thalia noticed she put a hand over his shoulder and smiled at him. Percy smiled back and they continued reading.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend**

Grover smiled at that…

**Even if he was a little strange.**

Then frowned and huffed.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too - Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

" Good," Annabeth sighed.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"How could you treat a book like that," scolded Athena and AJ

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"Well he knows now," Grover exclaimed.

"Why?" Poseidon.

"He's been to the Underworld A LOT of times." Nico replied for Grover. After hearing that both Percy and Poseidon paled.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Worst feeling ever!" Exclaimed Nico while everyone looked at him weirdly except the stolls.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

"Good," AJ said but when Percy smiled at her she blushed which made Luke jealous because he thought he was the only one who could do that.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave YancyAcademy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

"Aren't we all" this time Katie sighed while Percy wondered what kind of crazy stuff he did.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"At that everyone from the future snorted, but Percy just smirked at everyone thinking 'I really don't change much.'

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too - "**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline - "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall - "**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Urrrrrrrrrrggggggggg" Hermes and his sons growled .

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"When aren't you?" Nico exclaimed

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Three hours!" All the demigods shouted.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

"I'm going to take that the wrong way I just know it," Percy sighed.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I really, really hate her!" Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, and Charisse growled.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be - "**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy - "**

**But I was already gone.**

"Totally knew it," Again Percy sighed

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Nico may be a nobody, but I'm not," Thalia told Percy who just smiled as Nico pouted.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Jerks!" Katie yelled.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"That seriously scared me!" Grover exclaimed.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha - what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

**"Grover - "**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

" Like now," Laughed the stolls.

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half - "**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?**"

"That was harsh," Nico and Thalia said together then stared at each other weirdly.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I - I kind of have toprotect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road - no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

After reading that Thalia dropped the book and had tears running down her eyes, but she wasn't the only one. Annabeth, Katie and Rachel were crying too. The rest of the demigods and the gods who liked Percy looked like they were about to cry too.

"Hey Thales, why are you crying?" Percy asked not knowing what was going, but instead of answering him Thalia pulled Percy into a hug. Nico grabbed the book and started reading again to get this part over with.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man - "**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

" Not the time to joke Perce," Choked Travis

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors - gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

" Why Perce, why?" a crying Annabeth asked nobody in particular.

**cross the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

By now even Clarisse was crying which shocked almost everybody in the room, but nobody said anything.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for - Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Now the people who were crying started crying even more.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost - older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

Almost everyone had calmed down by now but the tension was still in the air. The only ones who were still sobbing were Annabeth and Thalia, but everyone in the future knew how close they were to Percy. But that didn't mean the past demigods or the gods couldn't wonder why they cared so much about Percy especially Athena, AJ and Luke.

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover - that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's it for the chapter," Nico said slamming the book shut," I think we should take a break for a while. That was a lot on us all."

" Ya I think that's a good idea too" Jason said making everyone jump because everyone had forgotten the trio were here because they hadn't talked much for a while.

"Okay we'll take an hour break and then we'll read two more chapters before going to bed." Zeus said before flashing out.

_Okay guys that's it for now, but Thanksgiving break is coming soon so i'll update as soon as possible. oh and I'm always open for ideas and I'd really like it if you could send me some. And who should I add next and from what time._


	4. Chapter 4

Losing Pants?

Hey guys! Thanks soooo much for all the wonderful reviews! For the people who want to know when older Percy is going to come into the story, it's going to probably be in the next 2 chapters, and of course there's going to be a family moment between Thalia, Nico and Percy. I just totally love family moments between them, but I never find any anywhere, so if you guys know any stories with family moments or stories about Thalia, Nico and Percy please tell. I'd love to read them. Okay and some of you asked me about some things like are the Romans going to be in it or was did I say Jason was a son of Zeus and why didn't I say that Grover was the lord of the wild. Well that's a surprise for you all, but almost everything I do has a reason and I meant it to be like that. Anyway enough of my boring Author's Note. ON WITH THE STORY! HOPE YOU LIKE! ;-)

Everyone was back in the throne room after the little break they had. Almost everyone had been in shock from what had happened in the previous chapter. So everyone had found their seats and were sitting down waiting for Zeus, Hades and Poseidon."Just because they're the big and powerful Big Three doesn't mean they can make us wait like we're nothing!" a very annoyed Hera exclaimed.

"Men," sighed Artemis. Just then very angry looking flashed into their thrones.

"Okay, so can we start reading now? I really want to get this book over with. We have 4 more to read after this." Zeus said taking the book from the table and making it god size. But just as he was about start reading, there was ANOTHER flash of light.

"Oh come on! More demigods! When will they stop?!" Hades complained childishly. But they we're just any demigods. They were the heroes of Greece!

"Why have you summoned us father?" Perseus asked Zeus.

"We have not summoned you. You have been brought to the future by the Fates to read about a young demigod and his adventures," explained Athena.

"Okay," They all replied at once.

" Now heroes please introduce yourselves to the future demigods," Hera told Heroes of Greece.

"Ummm, i'm Hercules son of Zeus, but you've probably heard of me," Just as he finished Thalia was about to attack him but was stopped by Annabeth and Nico.

"Let me at him! Percy wouldn't have wanted to pound him for what he did to Zoe! He deserves it!" Thalia yelled in protest.

"I know that Thalia, but he's not worth it," Annabeth argued.

"FIne but I swear if he does anything I don't like i'm going to kill him," Thalia told Annabeth.

"Fine," Sighed Annabeth giving up.

"Okay…. I'm Theseus, son Poseidon" Theseus said after that little scene.

"I'm Perseus, son of Zeus," after Perseus it was Orion's turn.

"And i'm Orion, son of Poseidon,"and with that the heroes of old's introductions were over.

"Please Introduce yourselves again future and present demigods," sighed Poseidon tried of all the Introductions.

"Okay we'll make this quick," Annabeth said before everyone introduced themselves again. {sorry I REALLY didn't want to do the introductions} After everyone was done, Zeus flashed another couch into the room, and started to read.

**GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**

"Really Grover? Really?" Thalia said but before he could respond, her father started to read.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Well he's a pretty sucky hero," Hercules said, but this time Thalia shot her arrow right next to his head before saying,"If you EVER say that about my brother again, I WON'T miss!" after that she motioned her father to continue.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?**"

"Okay I would ditch him too," Nico admitted while grinning like a creep-a-zoid.

"Hey!" Grover Yelled.

**Whenever he got upset,Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

" Smart. I like your son uncle!" exclaimed Hermes while Grover was blushing so hard, his face looked like a red apple.

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

"He moved smarts," Annabeth said after seeing the creepy looking expressions on Travis and Conner's faces.

"We didn't say anything though!" They said together with their hands in the air in a surrender position.

"Ya but you were thinking it," Annabeth replied shutting them up.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"BEST MOM EVER!" Shouted Nico and Thalia happily hearing about their "mom"

"Awesome!" this time Annabeth and Grover said together Which made Poseidon and Percy smile.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

After that paragraph everyone except the little kids, Hercules and Jason because they didn't really care about Percy were glaring daggers at the king of all gods while he was shifting uncomfortably in his throne. He deserved that for what he did to the nicest woman on earth. He didn't want to be glared at anymore, so he kept reading.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Now all the goddesses cooed and Poseidon blushed.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"A lie but not a lie at the same time. I like her uncle!" Hermes said with a smile.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Isn't that the truth!" Thalia and Nico exclaimed.

"But I thought you were friends with him?" A very confused Orion asked.

"We closer than just friends, and we love teasing him," Nico explained and then waved his hand motioning Zeus to continue reading.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"GROSS" everyone in the room yelled, even the boys.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?**"

"HE ASKED HIM FOR MONEY! WHO THE HELL DOES THAT!?" Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Grover, Percy's his half-brothers and all the gods yelled. All of them and all of Percy's friends looked like they were going to murder someone, even Clarisse had a red glow around her.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"Did. He. Ever. Hit. You." Thalia asked little Percy through gritted teeth. Percy couldn't say anything, so he just nodded. Just then all Hades broke out. Thalia had Lightning Surrounding her and her eyes were glowing, Nico was on green fire and skeletons were coming out of the ground, Annabeth was holding her Knife and had a grey glow around her, Clarisse eyes looked scary as hell and the red glow around her had grown stronger, Katie was also surrounded in a light green glow, the stolls and Chris had a pretty scary look on there faces, the wild around grover had grown stronger, and the Scariest was Poseidon who had started a earthquake. The younger demigods, the gods and the heroes of old were just watching awe-struck. The gods had no idea their children were so powerful, the heroes of old were somewhat jealous, Hercules the most, because they didn't have THAT much power, and the younger demigods were thinking 'when did we get so powerful' and 'we must really care about this Percy kid. After about 20 minutes calming everyone down, they started to read once again.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet,leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"He's always so sarcastic," said Nico fondly.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic - how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone - something - was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with herlong brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"That woman is incredible!" Orion said amazed.

" Yes she is," was what he got.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"LUCKY!"the stolls and Leo screamed.

"One of the many reason I live there," Said Nico.

"And why I always go to live there on vacations." Thalia added

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally - how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

**Like many others in the room.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at YancyAcademy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked YancyAcademy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

**"Not the time to lie young Percy," Sighed Hermes while everyone looked at him like he was from another planet, but shrugged it off after a while and continued.**

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights - same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

**"Not enough money my-" Thalia was cut off by Annabeth yelling**

**"LANGUAGE!"**

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?**"

"WHAT!"fumed Aphrodite. But Zeus continued reading not wanting to listen to her rant.

**clothes budget, right?"**

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"DO IT!" everyone yelled.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes - the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride - as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking - and more important, his '78Camaro - for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he'd be the one driving, he's twelve." Thalia snorted.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

The only thing everyone who didn't know him thought 'he's powerful', but the people who did know him thought 'That's our Percy!'

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This - along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano - was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"He doesn't have a rebellious streak. He has a tiny obedience streak," Thalia, Nico and Annabeth said.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk - my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon winced when he heard this.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"IDIOT!" Nico shouted.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Good,"Hera said softly.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I - I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said - that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought YancyAcademy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me - all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

**Before that - a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"He's like you Hercules," Perseus said to Hercules, but before he could reply with a rude comment. Thalia yelled,"DON'T YOU DARE COMPARE PERCY TO HIM!" she said this with the most venom she could. Without saying anything Zeus did the wise thing and read.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy - the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad - who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born - talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I - I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

"I hate that look," sighed Nico and Poseidon and then looked at each other smiling.

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice - someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What?" The Stolls, Leo, Hermes and Apollo confused.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror - not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on - and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro - but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

**"Ohhhh," the people from before said.**

"Okay that's the end, but let's read one more chapter then head to bed. Who wants to read next?" Zeus asked.

"I will!" Leo raised his hand.

**MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING**


End file.
